AFSCME Council 5 members who work for HDC voted overwhelmingly to reject their employer’s contract offer and authorize their negotiating team to call a strike.  This group of 138 workers provides life services to individuals and families on behalf of St. Louis, Carlton, Cook and Lake counties.

The union is charging the employer with negotiating in bad faith and has filed unfair labor practice charges.  Despite mediation, the employer has refused to counter union proposals and is attempting to negotiate with individual employees instead of their union bargaining team. Memos from HDC Executive Director Jim Gruba have misrepresented the employer\'s wage offer and pressured workers to accept it, the union said.

"We have many difficult issues to negotiate, but we can\'t settle those issues when HDC violates labor law by stonewalling, intimidating and lying to its workers," said Bob Buckingham, the lead negotiator for the union.  "AFSCME has a strong voice and it\'s our job to inform our members."
 
The parties have been in negotiations since last October. The union and employer met Tuesday and a third mediation is scheduled for March 2. A contract extension will expire Feb. 28 and a strike could begin as early as March 5.

"This has been a stressful and arduous journey and we hope for a fair and equitable contract," said Julie Kim, a therapist who has worked at HDC for 16 years. "HDC needs to treat its workers with integrity and respect, as it does its clients. It\'s unconscionable for HDC to force its workers to choose between their families and their clients."

"The ball is in HDC\'s court," explained Todd Kneebone, president of AFSCME Local 3558, which includes the HDC bargaining unit. "It\'s time for our employer to begin bargaining in good faith."

Kneebone noted that HDC receives public funding as well as support from working families who contribute to the United Way. Elected officials and contributors are watching.

AFSCME Council 5 represents 43,000 public and non-profit workers throughout Minnesota.